Hello Archfriends!
We've heard your appreciation and love for the sounds within Solium Infernum!
Stephan Schutze is the magical mind behind most of Solium Infernum's SFX. Our Community Managers have sat down to rattle his brain on how he creates such magic.
What has been your musical journey so far and how did it lead you into the world of video game audio?
"I started as a brass player. I got into an elite college for instrumental music simply because I play French Horn and they needed them for the orchestra. I definitely should not have been there otherwise, I was just not good enough. Then I joined the army as a musician and spent five years playing professionally. At that time I started teaching myself composing. I never had any formal lessons in composing or arranging. When I got my first studio job I was hired to do all the music and sound design for games and I had never been taught sound design either, so I taught myself that. So I am mostly self taught and I never really had the benefit of a mentor, which I miss -- I think my career growth was much slower because of that. Having said that, in my second year in the industry I was given a full orchestra and the opportunity to write over 60 minutes of orchestral music. Just tells you that you can never predict where your career will go."
When you come on board for a project like Solium Infernum, what are some of the first things you do when you start the process of creating?
"Early stages of any project for me is "absorption". I need to play the game if possible, see the concept art, the models, the animations. Anything and everything that make up the game world and how things look and move. All of this provides not just information, but inspiration. I see wonderful artwork and it just makes me really want to dig in and create sounds. I get very invested in a project really quickly as I see the potential for how things can sound, I love to just make things noisy. Often early on I just cram tons of sounds in in various places, I let myself overindulge and then as 'the audio world' starts to come together I can trim things back, reduce or remove things, but the initial burst of energy and passion really helps me get into gear for any project."
What were some of the sounds/audio that inspired you when creating the soundscape of Hell?
"I try not to use external influences when I initially start. I really want my sounds to be fresh. I will sometimes use external content if I am creatively stuck or if I am working on something I have not done much of in the past. I have not worked on magical spell sounds that much, so I did play some games with magic in them to understand the vocabulary that is used to represent magic from the sound point of view. But what I do listen to is my sound libraries. I have hundreds of thousands of sounds in my collection. And listening through the various search results can really give me inspiration for how I can add new layers or blends of sounds to create the base of a sound effect, or how sounds can mix from one to another during an animation. Think of it like playing with colours on a pallet to try and establish the tone you want to work with."
Talk me through the software you use and the recording/creating process you have?
"I will try and keep this as brief as possible but there can be a lot to discuss here. Firstly, I create sound libraries as part of my own business, so I have an extensive collection of microphones and recording devices for various purposes. If I need new raw material then I will go out and record it as appropriate. Living in a quiet country location makes this much easier than living in a city, I can literally record content in our own yard!"
"As far as software, for quick basic editing I use a very old piece of software called Cool Edit. I like to use this because it runs super fast and is very light on resources, so I can get basic dialogue editing and file formatting done so much faster with that software. For complex sound design, I currently use Reaper and a bunch of plugins for creating the sounds or the sound elements I need. I mention elements because many of the sounds in Solium are generated in real time in our audio tool called Wwise. So a sound might have multiple layers and each layer has multiple variations. Wwise will randomly select from an available variation and then combine the layers in real time. In this way a specific sound that you hear in game can have almost infinite variability. Repetitive sounds are something I have always tried to avoid."
What are the differences between creating sound effects for a video game compared to something like a movie?
"Well, I mentioned the generative sounds above, so that is one key difference. Often I do not create a finished complete sound, I create layers that are assembled when the game is played. The other key difference is that the "final mix" occurs when the player plays the game, and that mix needs to take into consideration maaaany things. The player's actions, the AI actions, what is occurring in the narrative, etc. And so we cannot create a perfect mix that is guaranteed, all we can do is set up guidelines that the game tries to follow to make sure the important sounds are clearly audible and that the overall soundscape sounds alive and interesting."
"One other aspect is that many game sounds attached to an object in a 3D game world and so it can sometimes be tricky to make super impactful sounds. Like a huge explosion sound can lose impact if the player has run away from where the explosion would occur, so we have to plan and allow for things like that."
In the never-ending ashy landscape of Hell, how do you ensure that there is that consistent sense of eerie dread in the audio without overwhelming the player?
"This was one of the biggest challenges of SI's audio design... To create an interesting and engaging soundscape without being too messy. I approached that by creating "depth" layers. When the camera is zoomed all the way out, you can hear the music and occasional infernal thunder and wandering ghostly voices. The thunder and voices are random -- they also wander around the environment so they feel more alive. But this allows the player to have a relatively calm and sparse soundscape. When turn processing occurs the camera zooms in to a fixed distance and at this distance we can hear troops moving and spells being cast and combat sounds, so we get more detail at this medium zoom range. But if the player chooses to zoom right in on buildings or terrain features they get even more detail. So the ravines and their eternal fires can be heard, the chanting from Places of Power or Strongholds, ash blowing past the sunken face. I designed the system to give the players the ability to have more or less audio detail as they explore."
Which sound effect is your fave and why?
"The Gorgon Titan firing its eye-beam! This is one of the best examples of where my explorations in my sound libraries gave me so much inspiration when combined with the incredible animations and VFX work. That event looks incredible so I knew I had to really dial up the impact of the sounds. The firing sound is pretty good, but for me it is the entire build-up that really adds so much impact to the event. This is also important from a direction point of view. Because the animation is so good and gives so much space to represent that incredible build-up, the entire event just has so much impact when the Gorgon finally unleashes. I love it."
Which sound effect was the hardest to get right?
"The UI sounds. I have never -- in over 23 years of working in this industry -- worked on a project with so many interface sounds. We have an incredibly complex menu system and so much of it is stunning to look at. I have to create feedback sounds that support this incredible artwork, but at the same time remains subtle and -- most importantly -- communicates with the player just how important various actions are."
"UI sounds are always hard. SI UI sounds were incredibly tricky. For many of them, I remade the sounds over and over until I was happy with them. Some of them are still not perfect, but I honestly am not sure how to make them perfect!"
What kind of games do you play yourself? Do you have any standout soundscapes you've heard?
"I play practically everything, I have been a gamer for much longer than I have been a sound designer. There are so many games that have blown me away. The music for Mass Effect and Diablo 2 literally make me want to BE in those worlds. That is how powerful they are. The sound design in Bioshock 2 is so beautifully crafted you can feel the great city of Rapture slowly dying and it really feels tragic. Everything in Bastion and Hades is practically perfect from an audio point of view. There is so much wonderful audio out there from so many incredible game devs that playing games these days is just an awesome way to spend my time!"
What does an average day look like for you?
"Chaotic mania.... Wonderful, glorious chaotic mania."
"There is really no such thing as an average day and that is why I love what I do! One day I am working on the emotional responses for Ham the pig mascot in Jumplight Odyssey, the next day I am recording sounds that are going to be used in a Hollywood film trailer, the day after I am mixing 3 different voice actors together to make the tormented voice of the Archfiend Murmur and then I finish off my week by dipping into Unreal engine and setting up complex soundscapes for a new project. My days are never "average"!"
What advice would you give to someone looking to get into the audio side of video games?
"Make a game. There are a million tools out there that will allow you to make games. There are also many many folk who want to work in games and specifically game audio. So, how do you stand out .... Make your own game. Even if it is a super simple level or demo, by making your own game you then get to add audio to it. It's great experience. Making games is very hard and working in the game industry is also very hard, but it is worth it, it is worth it if you really commit yourself to the journey."
We hope you enjoy Solium Infernum with a whole new perspective on sound! We've also got an interview with Michael Allen coming soon, about the Solium Infernum Soundtrack...
See you in Hell…
<3 LoG
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P.S. You can support us and our re-imagining of Vic's "diamond in the dark" by purchasing Solium Infernum on Steam, if you haven't already. Purchasing tells the all-great Steam algorithm that people like what they’re seeing and gets us in front of more eyes.
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1893810/Solium_Infernum/